Bringing life experience to classroom
How do CTUO assignments ask students to bring their life experiences and knowledge to the class and to the work that students are doing toward their degrees?
Every class has literally hundreds of years of life experience in it, so how can we have students make connections between what they know and bring to class and what they're learning? Do you find that our assignments ask the most out of students and give them opportunities to bolster their self-esteem with academic work by letting them rely on their natural, experiential knowledge base?
I agree that students want to bring their life experiences to the classroom. They want to feel that they have accomplished skills and learned a great deal from those experiences. They then want their education to build on these skills and knowledge.
I think that life experience will serve most students well when they enter the work force. This will aid them whenever they need to work with people. It gives them the advantage to strike up conversations and relate to the patient or person they are speaking to and in turn it can make certain situations more comfortable. I always encourage my students to relate any experiences that pertain to the subject we are discussing to help them see how to include the material into a normal day to day conversation.
I like to find out why my students are taking the class and whether they have any first hand knowledge. When there are students with experience, it can bring in another point of view which tends to more interesting conversations of the material.
Students are eager to learn from the instructor's life experiences. This makes learning more real to them.
In a non-traditional academic environment, value is found from adult learners based on experiences thay have endured throughout their lives. Life experience, regardless of whether or not it is positive or negative, create an environment where critical concept ideas are linked and bolstered by academic theory.
Encouraging the exchange of ideas within an open environment allows experiences, ideas, concepts, and applications to be adequately expressed to the rest of the cohort.
Helps the student to relate to what is being presented. My students enjoy the interaction and it allows them to express themselves and share things with the class. They often times fell that they have more in common with each other and gives them a sense of belonging. It creates an atmosphere that opens their minds to being more creative in learning and gives the a comfort level about being in school again.
It always helps when a student is able to bring in the real-world experiences - the challenge sometimes is making it relevant to the topic. As long as the instructor has good, strong classroom management this should not be an issue.
When I teach a certain subject, I assess the student's knowledge by asking a few simple questions. I introduce the subject, such as the urinary system and proceed with asking if anyone had experience with kidney stones, UTIs, nephrostomy, catherizations etc. and ask them to share their experience with the class. This allows for students to become involved in the teaching process and allows for my teaching style to incorporate some real life experience into lecture.
I agree, in addition, adult learners prepare for adjusting to the ever-changing world around them. Adult learners use past experiences combining them with learning new skills and communicating them to change outcomes.
Hi Audra,
Yes. That is part of the "connecting the dots" part of the learning process. Students need to be able to bring their life experiences into the assignments and then build from there. This will help them to see relevancy and application in what they are studying.
Gary
